Socrates and the Afterlife
During his last days with his disciples, Socrates knew and understands the foundation of death to the best of his knowledge. He did not fear death because he understood that, (1) death was inevitable, and (2) that death was not the end, but the beginning of another type of journey. During his last hours, while in conversation with one of his disciples, he said “Death is the separation of soul and body--and the philosopher desires such a separation. He would like to be freed from the dominion of bodily pleasures and of the senses, which are always perturbing his mental vision. He wants to get rid of eyes and ears, and with the light of the mind only to behold the light of truth. All the evils and impurities and necessities of men come from the body.” (Plato, pp. 437–444) He believed that only wisdom and purity came after death, which comforted him as death was getting closer and closer. Though he did not fear death, he was very opposed to the idea of suicide. He felt that the Gods had created us, and protected us; therefore we have not the right to take away their creations, that only they, they Gods, could take away a life.
Socrates had a lot of beliefs; being one of the great philosophers he saw things in a different light. One of the many reasons he did not fear death was because his take on the afterlife. This ideology comforted him, believing that the soul exists and that when he dies, all of his mortal shortcomings would fade away and only knowledge would be left. In my person opinion, I am going to agree with Socrates. Though we struggle with the deaths of loved ones all the time and it breaks our hearts, death itself is not scary, it’s mysterious. We, being a curious species, hate not being able to understand something, so we have ways of coping. With death, with choose to take on the negative notions and...